Ways Gratitude Can Improve Mental, Physical, And Spiritual Health

No matter what the circumstances are you will find some people living their best lives, living being happy, they see the glass as half full and not as half empty. Well, you may think that some people are meant to be that way or it is a part of their personality but it may not be what you think. They may be simply practicing gratitude. Practicing gratitude is a gift that not only benefits you but it extends to your family, friends, and partner.

Since negative and positive emotions cannot take place at the same time, practicing gratitude can eliminate many negative emotions. And how gratitude actually benefits you is because the brain is the most powerful organ and our thoughts influence our behaviors and physical health. If you focus on good things, good things will happen to you, what you focus on in life is what you will experience.

Practicing gratitude can activate different parts of your brain that includes the hypothalamus which regulates hormones that have a real effect on both your mental and physical health.

Feeling grateful helps to activate the happy hormones and by doing so it can help relieve the psychological and physiological effects of stress.

Practicing gratitude can decrease negative emotions:

When you are surrounded by stressful situations it can be tempting to focus on the negative but when you divert your focus on positive things, you will get positivity in return. Gratitude reduces negative emotions like envy, regret, and anger. It even helps to reduce stress which contributes to many health benefits.

It helps to increase empathy:

Being grateful can open you to more other emotions, its benefit goes beyond your own emotions. Gratitude increases empathy and therefore changes behavior including reducing aggression and decreasing the desire to retaliate.

Gratitude is often used as a large part to treat anxiety and depression. It has been shown that practicing gratitude can decrease depressive symptoms and can even reduce suicidal ideation.

When you consistently come across advertising, news stories of celebrities, and big personalities it can cause you to compare yourselves to others. This can lead to resentment, envy, and low self-esteem, and gratitude, on the other hand, can reverse those effects. When you start appreciating the abundance in your own lives, your life’s gratification increases.

The psychological benefit of gratitude is better adaptive coping abilities. A person who practices gratitude can face adversity with mental toughness and can come out stronger on the other side. They find inner strength and this is the benefit of gratitude.

It doesn't only have psychological benefits but physical benefits as well as it reduces stress and increases optimism.

It promotes better sleep as people who rate themselves as more grateful report better sleep quality, longer sleep, and a greater ability to fall asleep quickly.

Since it has sleep benefits it even helps to improve heart health. Other health benefits include reduced inflammation and better heart rate variability, and all these are indicators of good heart health. Practicing gratitude along with eating a healthy diet and exercising can just be what your heart may need to stay strong.

Researchers have found astounding health benefits of gratitude, it reduces nausea and has another positive exercise. It was found that people who practice gratitude have an increased drive to exercise and the benefits of exercise are well known.

In a 2007 study, it was found that patients with hypertension who counted their blessings had lower blood pressure than those who didn't.

Friendship and relationships are one of the best parts of life and gratitude can keep those relationships strong. Expressing your gratitude to your loved ones can improve the quality of the relationship. All these deep bonds help reduce loneliness and lengthen lifespan.

When you are grateful, there won't be any room for negative emotions like anger, fear, and jealousy. Because then you know that you are living in complete abundance and you have everything you need. What others have doesn't affect how you feel about your life as you know you are in control of your own happiness.

Gratitude makes us feel more connected to each other and to this universe. It allows us to find blessings in every situation. And when we feel connected, we are driven to give more to those less fortunate.

In a way, we can say that yes, gratitude can make this world a better place to live.